OTTAWA, Ontario — The Sharks are not delusional. They say they know that while their playoff hopes are mathematically alive, the odds are stacked heavily against them.

Yet players say that they will press forward Monday night against the Ottawa Senators as if something is on the line even if outsiders may have given up hope.

“We still believe that every night we can win,” the Sharks” Logan Couture said after Saturday night”s 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. “We”ve got to go out and work as hard as we possibly can to try to.”

With ten games left, the 2015-16 season seems like one “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moment after another.

These moments aren”t like the matching 7-2 blowouts at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. These games are the ones that should have been in the win column, but didn”t make it for whatever reason. Or losses that stung a little more than normal.

In chronological order, a look at five of the most frustrating:

Oct. 25: Buffalo Sabres 2, Sharks 1. San Jose loses regularly in Buffalo, with only one road victory there in franchise history. But this game was at home against a Sabres team that had scored only one goal in its four previous contests, all losses.

So what if San Jose had a three-game losing streak of its own? That ends here, right? Wrong. The game was scoreless early in the third period when two Sabres goals made winners of one of the NHL”s weakest teams. The Sharks, of course, also would lose in Buffalo this season, picking up zero points against one of the NHL”s bottom-dwellers.

Dec. 7: Edmonton Oilers 2, Sharks 1. Like Buffalo, the Oilers are perennial doormats, but they entered the game at a low point even for them. Edmonton had lost 11 straight and coach Dallas Eakins had canceled a Sunday practice, in part at least, so players wouldn”t be confronted by negative media questions.

The Sharks had won four in a row. So what happens? A shot by David Perron bounces into the net off Brenden Dillon”s skate midway through the third period. Two more points lost forever.

Feb. 21: Los Angeles Kings 2, Sharks 1 at Levi”s Stadium. Forget what coaches and players usually say about all games being equal, that all games are about which team puts two points in the bank.

This game was more equal than others, to adapt a line from George Orwell. This one had 72,205 fans filling the new home of the 49ers in a grand spectacle that saw the home team fall flat.

It wasn”t just that the Sharks lost to their most-hated rivals, it was how they lost — a neutral-zone turnover leading to a Marian Gaborik blast that looked stoppable — before the third-largest crowd in NHL history.

Feb. 26: Detroit Red Wings 3, Sharks 2. February was a disaster for the Sharks, who went winless in eight home games, 3-8-2 overall.

This game is the one that general manager Doug Wilson cites as particularly frustrating. San Jose took a 2-1 lead early in the second period, then had a stretch of nearly 28 minutes getting only one shot on net.

Then with only 75 seconds left, unheralded center Luke Glendening gave Detroit its first lead, taking away the one point to which the Sharks were clinging.

March 7: Vancouver Canucks 3, Sharks 2. All teams can cite costly officiating errors. The Sharks, for example, can point to a non-call this night as one that hurt them big-time.

Already ahead 2-1 and on a power play, San Jose expected to get 1:34 of a 5 on 3 when a Canuck covered the puck with his glove in the faceoff circle — an automatic infraction. Except this time it wasn”t.

Maybe the Sharks wouldn”t have scored with the two-man advantage. One never knows. But in a division showdown they didn”t get the call and things went bad from there.

OTTAWA, Ontario — The Sharks are not delusional. They say they know that while their playoff hopes are mathematically alive, the odds are stacked heavily against them.

Yet players say that they will press forward Monday night against the Ottawa Senators as if something is on the line even if outsiders may have given up hope.

“We still believe that every night we can win,” the Sharks” Logan Couture said after Saturday night”s 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. “We”ve got to go out and work as hard as we possibly can to try to.”

With ten games left, the 2015-16 season seems like one “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moment after another.

These moments aren”t like the matching 7-2 blowouts at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. These games are the ones that should have been in the win column, but didn”t make it for whatever reason. Or losses that stung a little more than normal.

In chronological order, a look at five of the most frustrating:

Oct. 25: Buffalo Sabres 2, Sharks 1. San Jose loses regularly in Buffalo, with only one road victory there in franchise history. But this game was at home against a Sabres team that had scored only one goal in its four previous contests, all losses.

So what if San Jose had a three-game losing streak of its own? That ends here, right? Wrong. The game was scoreless early in the third period when two Sabres goals made winners of one of the NHL”s weakest teams. The Sharks, of course, also would lose in Buffalo this season, picking up zero points against one of the NHL”s bottom-dwellers.

Dec. 7: Edmonton Oilers 2, Sharks 1. Like Buffalo, the Oilers are perennial doormats, but they entered the game at a low point even for them. Edmonton had lost 11 straight and coach Dallas Eakins had canceled a Sunday practice, in part at least, so players wouldn”t be confronted by negative media questions.

The Sharks had won four in a row. So what happens? A shot by David Perron bounces into the net off Brenden Dillon”s skate midway through the third period. Two more points lost forever.

Feb. 21: Los Angeles Kings 2, Sharks 1 at Levi”s Stadium. Forget what coaches and players usually say about all games being equal, that all games are about which team puts two points in the bank.

This game was more equal than others, to adapt a line from George Orwell. This one had 72,205 fans filling the new home of the 49ers in a grand spectacle that saw the home team fall flat.

It wasn”t just that the Sharks lost to their most-hated rivals, it was how they lost — a neutral-zone turnover leading to a Marian Gaborik blast that looked stoppable — before the third-largest crowd in NHL history.

Feb. 26: Detroit Red Wings 3, Sharks 2. February was a disaster for the Sharks, who went winless in eight home games, 3-8-2 overall.

This game is the one that general manager Doug Wilson cites as particularly frustrating. San Jose took a 2-1 lead early in the second period, then had a stretch of nearly 28 minutes getting only one shot on net.

Then with only 75 seconds left, unheralded center Luke Glendening gave Detroit its first lead, taking away the one point to which the Sharks were clinging.

March 7: Vancouver Canucks 3, Sharks 2. All teams can cite costly officiating errors. The Sharks, for example, can point to a non-call this night as one that hurt them big-time.

Already ahead 2-1 and on a power play, San Jose expected to get 1:34 of a 5 on 3 when a Canuck covered the puck with his glove in the faceoff circle — an automatic infraction. Except this time it wasn”t.

Maybe the Sharks wouldn”t have scored with the two-man advantage. One never knows. But in a division showdown they didn”t get the call and things went bad from there.

OTTAWA, Ontario — The Sharks are not delusional. They say they know that while their playoff hopes are mathematically alive, the odds are stacked heavily against them.

Yet players say that they will press forward Monday night against the Ottawa Senators as if something is on the line even if outsiders may have given up hope.

“We still believe that every night we can win,” the Sharks” Logan Couture said after Saturday night”s 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. “We”ve got to go out and work as hard as we possibly can to try to.”

With ten games left, the 2015-16 season seems like one “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moment after another.

These moments aren”t like the matching 7-2 blowouts at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. These games are the ones that should have been in the win column, but didn”t make it for whatever reason. Or losses that stung a little more than normal.

In chronological order, a look at five of the most frustrating:

Oct. 25: Buffalo Sabres 2, Sharks 1. San Jose loses regularly in Buffalo, with only one road victory there in franchise history. But this game was at home against a Sabres team that had scored only one goal in its four previous contests, all losses.

So what if San Jose had a three-game losing streak of its own? That ends here, right? Wrong. The game was scoreless early in the third period when two Sabres goals made winners of one of the NHL”s weakest teams. The Sharks, of course, also would lose in Buffalo this season, picking up zero points against one of the NHL”s bottom-dwellers.

Dec. 7: Edmonton Oilers 2, Sharks 1. Like Buffalo, the Oilers are perennial doormats, but they entered the game at a low point even for them. Edmonton had lost 11 straight and coach Dallas Eakins had canceled a Sunday practice, in part at least, so players wouldn”t be confronted by negative media questions.

The Sharks had won four in a row. So what happens? A shot by David Perron bounces into the net off Brenden Dillon”s skate midway through the third period. Two more points lost forever.

Feb. 21: Los Angeles Kings 2, Sharks 1 at Levi”s Stadium. Forget what coaches and players usually say about all games being equal, that all games are about which team puts two points in the bank.

This game was more equal than others, to adapt a line from George Orwell. This one had 72,205 fans filling the new home of the 49ers in a grand spectacle that saw the home team fall flat.

It wasn”t just that the Sharks lost to their most-hated rivals, it was how they lost — a neutral-zone turnover leading to a Marian Gaborik blast that looked stoppable — before the third-largest crowd in NHL history.

Feb. 26: Detroit Red Wings 3, Sharks 2. February was a disaster for the Sharks, who went winless in eight home games, 3-8-2 overall.

This game is the one that general manager Doug Wilson cites as particularly frustrating. San Jose took a 2-1 lead early in the second period, then had a stretch of nearly 28 minutes getting only one shot on net.

Then with only 75 seconds left, unheralded center Luke Glendening gave Detroit its first lead, taking away the one point to which the Sharks were clinging.

March 7: Vancouver Canucks 3, Sharks 2. All teams can cite costly officiating errors. The Sharks, for example, can point to a non-call this night as one that hurt them big-time.

Already ahead 2-1 and on a power play, San Jose expected to get 1:34 of a 5 on 3 when a Canuck covered the puck with his glove in the faceoff circle — an automatic infraction. Except this time it wasn”t.

Maybe the Sharks wouldn”t have scored with the two-man advantage. One never knows. But in a division showdown they didn”t get the call and things went bad from there.